For many years in the data processing field, printing out of data from a central processor has been a fairly straightforward operation. In general, a plurality of printers were associated with central processor. These printers could be at locations or output stations adjacent to the central processor or remote from the central processor. In the latter case, of course, the central processor transmitted the alphanumeric data stream to be printed to the receiving printer which proceeded to produce the printout. With such conventional systems, the printers were in effect dedicated to the central processor, i.e., to primarily produce printout for the central processor. In operating such substantially dedicated printers, the operator at the printer could set repetitive formatting parameters such as line spacing, maximum lines per page, pitch, lines per inch, or characters per line on the printer to suit particular processor with which the printer was associated and such parameters would remain substantially unchanged for considerable periods of time. With data processing printouts, in general, format was not an important consideration and consequently formats were not changed frequently.
In recent years, however, there has been a trend towards the combination of data processing facilities and text processing facilities into electronic distribution networks which are capable of transmitting and printing out both data processing and text processing documents at any one of a plurality of workstations within the network. Copending patent application Ser. No. 310,184, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,311, "A Text Having an Interactive Display Terminal Which Alternately Functions as a Data Processing Terminal", Filed Oct. 9, 1981, S. F. Clements et al, assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, is an example of a system having combined data processing and text processing capabilities. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,532,588, "An Electronic Document Distribution Network with Uniform Data Stream", Filed Nov. 9, 1982, G. J. Foster, also assigned to the same assignee of the present invention describes an electronic document distribution network.
Because of the above developments in the data process field, there has been an increasing need for systems having printers which are not formatted to support any particular data processor but rather capable of providing printouts from a wide variety of data processors or even text processors capable of transmitting a data stream to that particular printer output station.
Consequently, printers which require a "hands on" operator to change the above described repetitive formatting parameters cannot serve efficiently these systems. The system must have the capability of effectively and quickly switching one particular printout format to another.